martedì 15 novembre 2011

A matter of centimetres stood between Central Coast and a winover an under-strength Melbourne Victory last night as the sidesplayed out a scoreless A-League draw at Bluetongue Stadium.

Looking to capitalise on a host of Victory absentees, includingstar attackers Harry Kewell and Carlos Hernandez, the Marinerslooked the more likely throughout but couldn't find a winner -although they couldn't have come much closer.

Graham Arnold's side was denied twice in a matter of seconds ina controversial first-half goal-mouth scramble and came within awhisker several times in the second half as they squandered ahandful of chances.

While the Mariners will view the result as two points lost, itstretched both sides' unbeaten runs to three matches as theyrecover from slow starts to the 2011/12 campaign.

The Victory were missing Socceroos midfielder Kewell and CostaRican Hernandez, both on international duty, while goalkeeper AnteCovic and Matthew Foschini were both unavailable due to suspensionfollowing last week's fiery 2-2 draw with Brisbane Roar.

Last night's match in Gosford failed to reach any great heightsbut the 29th minute goalmouth scramble was the main talking pointamong the 10,521 fans.

Michael McGlinchey thought he had scored when Victory 'keeperLawrence Thomas fumbled a shot backwards towards goal, only forRodrigo Vargas to save the day with a stunning overheadclearance.

Daniel McBreen then hit the underside of the crossbar with afollow-up header and Mariners players appealed in unison claimingthe ball had crossed the line before bouncing back out.